Thinking Outside the Box

It’s probably been over three years since I last participated in the Friday Fictioneers, a group of hundreds of people from around the world who share their 100-word photo-prompted stories each week. Thank you, Rochelle Wisoff Fields, Friday Fictioneers’ Fearless Leader for her hard work in keeping this group thriving and growing over the years.

This week’s photo prompt is by Russell Gayer.

I must admit, when I first saw the prompt, I thought, “Maybe I’ll start next week. What do I write about a toilet?”

Then,  a memory came to mind . . .

“Mommy! Mommy! When will you be finished?” whined my three-year old daughter as she pounded on the bathroom door.

The muffled slaps of tiny hands against the door followed. “Yeah, finish, Mama!”–My two-year old son’s attempt to mimic his sister.

I sat. I hung my head, face in my hands. Was there not one…single…place in the house where I could be…ALONE?

Then, the proverbial light bulb flashed on. It was, after all, where I did my best thinking—when I could think, that is.

In the house? How about OUTHOUSE?

That’s what I call thinking outside the box.

If you’d like to read other 100-word stories, click HERE.

Addendum

For anyone who doesn’t know, my husband, Steve, is also a writer, though he doesn’t have a blog. Periodically, I’ll share his stories here, too. Here’s this week’s:

It sat on the porch, then on the sidewalk for three days, in the rain. On the third day, the rain turned to snow and someone draped a strand of battery-powered red twinkly lights over it.

At midnight Claire and her boyfriend Jonathan, both seniors at the town high school, walked together in the snow. She sat on the toilet seat, lit a cigarette, and put it to Jonathan’s lips as he leaned forward, hands in his pockets.

She crushed the butt in the snow. “Kiss me.”

There’s a stone shed behind this house,” he said. “Let’s go.”